The Stranger (6 page)

T
hat's all?” Marco asked. “Just the fate of the human race? Don't you have something more challenging for us?”

But the Ellimist wasn't paying attention to Marco. “We do not interfere in the private affairs of other beings,” he said. “But when they are in danger of becoming extinct, we step in to save a few members. We love life. All life, but especially sentient life forms, like
Homo sapiens
. Your species. This is a very beautiful planet. A priceless work of art.”

“You've obviously never seen our school,” Marco said, still giddily trying to joke.

Suddenly, without warning, the Ellimist did it again. He opened space.

We were no longer standing in the Yeerk pool. We were no longer underground at all.

We were underwater.

Deep underwater. But the water did not seem to touch my skin. And when I breathed, there was air. Still, I felt fear tingle the back of my neck.

We stood — me, Cassie, Jake, Marco, Ax, and Tobias … Tobias, in his own human body — in the middle of an ocean. Suspended in the water, but dry. The Ellimist could no longer be seen.

We were floating above a coral reef. And everything was moving again.

All around us, fish swam by in swift-darting schools. Fish in every color and shape, reflecting the dappled sunlight from above. Sharks prowled. Stingrays seemed to fly. Squid pulsated. Crabs scuttled across fabulous extrusions of coral. Tuna as big as sheep drifted past. Swift, grinning dolphins raced by in pursuit of their next meal.

LOVELY
.

The Ellimist's voice once more seemed to grow from deep within my own heart.

LOVELY
.

And then, as quickly as we had been plunged into the ocean, we were drifting above the waving golden grass of the African savannah. A pride of lions lazed in the sun below us, looking sleepily content. Wildebeest and gazelles and impalas grazed, then broke into wild, springing, bouncing races that forced you to smile at the sheer energy of it all.

There were hyenas, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, baboons, zebras. Hawks and eagles and buzzards wheeled overhead.

LOOK AT IT
.

Then, in an instant, deep jungle. A lithe jaguar prowled while monkeys chattered in the tree canopy above. Snakes as long as a person slithered across tree branches. The air reeked of the heavy perfume of a million flowers. We heard the sounds of frogs, insects, monkeys, and wild, screaming birds.

IN ALL THE UNIVERSE
,
NO GREATER BEAUTY
.

IN A THOUSAND
,
THOUSAND WORLDS
,
NO GREATER ART THAN THIS
.

Then the Ellimist showed us the human race.

We flew, invisible, through the steel-and-glass canyons of New York City.

We drifted above villages at the edges of jungle rivers. We watched a rock concert in Rio de Janeiro, and a political meeting in Seoul, and a soccer game in Durban, and an open-air market in the Philippines.

HUMANS
.
CRUDE
.
PRIMITIVE
.
BUT CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING
. Suddenly all the movement stopped. We were staring at a picture. A painting. I'd seen the painting somewhere before.

It was a wild swirl of color. A painting of purple flowers. Irises, I think, although I'm no big expert on flowers. The artist had seen the beauty of those flowers and captured some small bit of it on canvas.

CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING
.

Then, without warning, we were back in the Yeerk pool.

The images were all gone. We were in the land of despair once again. Surrounded by frozen images of horror.

The Ellimist — or at least the body he had made for us to look at — reappeared.

“That was a nice tour,” I said. I was trying to sound tough. But I felt as if I had been turned inside out. As if my mind had exploded into a thousand sparkling pieces. I was overwhelmed. “But what's it all about?”

“Humans are an endangered species. Soon you will disappear.”

I thought of a couple things to say. But I said nothing. No one said anything.

“The Yeerk race is also sentient,” the Ellimist said. “And they are technologically more advanced than you. They will continue to infest the human race. The Andalites will try to stop them, but they will fail. The Yeerks will win. And soon, the only humans left will be what you call Human-Controllers.”

I had stopped breathing. The way he said it … it was like you couldn't argue. Like you couldn't say anything. He spoke every word with utter and complete certainty.

He wasn't guessing. He
knew
.

He knew that we would lose.

I
had been terrified a few moments before, as the Taxxon prepared to swallow us. I had been afraid for my own life and the lives of my friends.

Now, as the Yeerk pool hung suspended in time, I felt a deeper fear. My head was still swimming from all the images the Ellimist had shown us.

“Why come here just to tell us we're dead meat?” I managed to ask.

“We have an offer for you,” the Ellimist said. “You see, we can save a small sample of the human race. We have a planet where we would relocate you. You … some members of your family. A few others, chosen to get a good genetic sampling. As well as a few non-human Earth species that are of special interest to us.”

I was surprised to hear Cassie actually laugh. “He's some kind of environmentalist,” she said. “That's what he is. We're the spotted owls. We're the rhinos. We're the whales. We're the endangered species, and he's the environmentalist trying to save us.”

“We have a planet set aside for you,” the Ellimist said. “It will seem very much like Earth. You would be free to evolve naturally, as your species should.”

“This is insane,” Marco said. “It's like Noah's ark. The Yeerk flood is coming. Load up the boat.”

“No,” Tobias said, staring at the Ellimist. “It's a zoo. That's what he has for us — a zoo.”

The Ellimist said, “We do not impose our will on sentient species. The decision is yours. I have chosen you to decide, because only you, of all free humans, know what is happening. You must decide — to stay on Earth and fight a battle you are certain to lose. Or to leave this planet behind and form part of a new colony of humans.”

“How long do we have to decide?” Jake asked.

“You must decide now,” the Ellimist said.

“What?” I yelled. “What? What are you up to? What do you mean, we have to decide
now
?”

This was beyond insane. This was a dream. This couldn't even be real. I was imagining it all.

“If you decide the answer is yes, you, and some of those you are close to, will be instantly taken to your new home. If the answer is no, I will return everything to the way it was when I interrupted time.”

“You mean we're back in roach morph headed down that Taxxon's throat?” I asked.

“Everything as it was,” the Ellimist said. “Our purpose is not to interfere.”

I looked at Tobias. His face showed nothing. Maybe he had forgotten how to show emotion.

“And our friend Tobias?” Cassie asked softly.

“
Everything
as it was,” the Ellimist repeated.

“Oh, that's real fair,” Marco said. “You ask us this just as we're about to be some Taxxon's lunch?”

“This is ridiculous,” Jake said angrily. “You can't just tell us we have to make a decision like this. We are not the ones who should be deciding this. I mean, maybe you're trying to do the right thing for us, but this is nuts.”

Ax said. pretend
it was a human decision.>

It was hard to argue with Ax's opinion. The Ellimist had totally rigged this decision. Realizing that made me want to resist. The Ellimist wanted us to say yes. He wanted us to abandon the fight against the Yeerks.

And yet … a place where we would have peace. A place where the fighting would be over. Where we could be normal kids. No more decisions. No more battles.

The Ellimist had said we would be with some of the people we were close to. Who? Who would be saved?

“I vote no,” Tobias said, with sharp, angry defiance. “You're using me. You're using my friends' affection for me as a tool. And I'm not going for it.”

“Let's think this over a little first, Tobias,” Cassie pleaded. “I mean, just because we're upset … this decision is for the whole human race. Do you understand that? He's talking about humanity becoming
extinct
.”

“Tobias, you personally have a lot to lose,” Jake reminded him. “If we say no, you're right back in your hawk body.”

“So we have two votes no, Tobias and Rachel, one vote yes from Cassie,” Marco said.

But I
hadn't
voted. Marco had just assumed…. And he was right, I realized with a sick churning in my stomach. Marco was right about me. I had to vote no. If Tobias was ready to stay in the fight, with all he had to lose, I couldn't do less.

“What this character wants us to do is run away,” I said. “He wants us to abandon our people and our planet just to save ourselves and the people we care about personally.”

Tobias met my gaze. There appeared a faint flicker of his old, human smile.

Ax said.

“Guys, I know how you feel,” Cassie said, “but
think
about this. We may not even get out of this Yeerk pool alive. And if we die, then what chance do humans have against the Yeerks? And anyway, he says that humans will lose. Isn't it better to save
some
humans, rather than losing
everyone
?”

Jake and Marco had still not voted. I noticed that they were looking back toward the building we had come from. And past the building, to what looked like a tall, circular column rising straight up to the rock ceiling of the cavern.

The column was a mix of steel and clear glass. Inside the column was a Human-Controller, seemingly frozen in midair. She looked like she had been falling down the long tube.

Or else flying up it.

A dropshaft! We had used one aboard the Yeerk mother ship. It was a sort of elevator that worked on some invisible force to let you fall safely from one level to another.

But did it go
up
, as well as
down
? That was the question. Was the Human-Controller in the shaft falling or rising?

Jake cocked an eyebrow at me. He looked back to the column, making sure I had noticed it.

I squinted closely at the frozen Controller. She had shoulder-length hair. If she were falling, it should have been swept upward. It was down around her neck.

“Mr. Ellimist,” Marco said, “thanks for your offer. But I don't think so. I don't think I want to be in your zoo. And I don't like being muscled like this. I'm glad you like Earth, but we'll take care of it the best way we can.”

That made it four against. Me, Marco, Tobias, and Ax. I counted Ax, even if he said it wasn't up to him.

Cassie was alone in leaning in favor of the Ellimist's offer.

“You all know I take care of lots of sick animals. They are always afraid of me, even though I am trying to help them. Are we being brave saying no? Or are we just being foolish, resisting someone who is trying to save us?”

What she said made me think. With a shock, I pictured nature films I had seen. I remembered one that showed environmentalists attempting to capture some tigers. They were trying to move the tigers to a game preserve where they would be safe. Tigers are almost extinct, and the humans were trying to save a few.

But the tigers had resisted. They had growled and fought and avoided the capture nets.

Was that us? Were we animals on the edge of extinction, resisting the being who'd come to save us?

I wondered if I should change my vote. Save myself. Save my family. What would they say, if
they
had a vote? My mom? She would never risk the lives of her children. She would vote yes.

And my dad? If we were all magically transported to a safe place together, and I had to explain what I had done? That I had voted to save all of us and give up the fight? What would he think of that decision?

“You know what bothers me?” I heard Jake tell the Ellimist. “You say the human race will lose to the Yeerks. But I don't believe you can tell the future. See, you don't know how we're going to vote. If you did, you wouldn't bother to be here, would you?” He looked around at each of us.

Cassie smiled sadly. “If you guys vote to stay, I will, too.”

Jake reached out and took her hand. “Mr. Ellimist, I guess you have your an —”